Plot:
Paul (Steve Coogan), a history teacher, and his wife Claire (Laura Linney) are meeting Paul’s brother Stan (Richard Gere), a successful politician, and his second wife Katelyn (Rebecca Hall) for dinner. Paul obviously doesn’t want to go, he doesn’t actually like Stan a lot and he’s struggling with his mental health. But something happened that involves Paul and Claire’s son, as well as Stan’s kids from his first marriage. And the four present parents need to decide what to do about what happened.

The Dinner managed to completely dismantle white, rich privilege without ever leaving the privileged perspective. Nothing in this film is okay, but it is worth looking at the issues exactly because of that.

Plot:
Max (Louis C.K.) has the best life a dog could possibly have. He loves his owner Katie (Ellie Kemper) and she loves him and takes care of him. But then one day, Katie brings home another dog, Duke (Eric Stonestreet). Duke is huge and new and he’s here to stay. Max can’t have that, especially since Duke uses his size to bully Max. Their feud takes a turn for the worse when they are both captured by animal control, and then freed by the bunny Snowball’s (Kevin Hart) Flushed Animals resistance group.

I liked much about The Secret Life of Pets, but I didn’t fall in love with it as much as I thought I might.

Plot:
Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) is a recently unemployed journalist, looking for a new challenge. When he is approached to write about the story of Philomena (Judi Dench), he is nevertheless hesitant. Philomena, now an old woman, had a child at a very young age (Sophie Kennedy Clark). That son was given away against her will by the nuns she lived with and worked for. And all of Philomena’s attempts to find him again were stonewalled. Since Martin can’t find a better story, he goes along with this one and finds himself very intrigued after a short while.

Philomena’s story is worth telling and the movie is engaging but I did think that it was missing a bit impact. Nevertheless it’s a sweet film with a nice sense of humor and a touching story.

Plot:Paul Raymond (Steve Coogan) makes his money with nightclubs, stripping, erotic dancing – basically women taking their clothes off. And he makes a lot of it, despite the controversy around his job. His wife Jean (Anna Friel) is fully supportive – until Paul leaves her to be with Amber (Tamsin Egerton) and fully enjoy the party lifestyle. While Jean goes to the US with their son, Paul’s daughter Debbie (Imogen Poots) wants to follow in Paul’s footsteps as he continues to build his naked women emporium.

The Look of Love has a good cast but it has serious issues with focussing on the story they want to tell. It’s still rather entertaining, but it really didn’t blow me away.

Plot:
Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is London’s star police man. But his success makes the rest of the service look bad, so he is reassigned to the small town of Sandford, where he’s partnered up with Danny Butterman (Nick Frost). Sandford might officially be the safest town in the UK, but Nick’s investigations soon turn up some weird things, when a series of freak accidents start.

Man, I really love this movie. It’s funny, fast-paced and riddled with cameos (some of which I only just learned about, like Peter Jackson and Cate Blanchett). It’s just an absolute joy to watch.

Plot:
Percy Jackson’s (Logan Lerman) life is far from perfect. He’s dyslexic, suffers from ADHD and his mom (Catherine Keener) is married to an asshole. And then Percy finds out that his father is the god Poseidon, his best friend Grover (Brandon T. Jackson) is a satyr and his teacher (Pierce Brosnan) is a centaur. But that’s only the start of his adventures since Zeus’ (Sean Bean) lightning bolt was stolen – and everyone thinks it was Percy who did it.

On re-watching the film it is at the same time less infuriating but also less fun than the first time round. It’s nice, but it also feels completely inconsequential. It’s the kind of film you watch and you don’t mind seeing it but you never think of it again as soon as it’s done.

Plot:
Maisie (Onata Aprile) lives with her mother Susanna (Julianne Moore), an aging rock singer and her father Beale (Steve Coogan), a workaholic business man. While Margo (Joanna Vanderham) watches Maisie most of the time, Susanna and Beale are separating, their divorce growing increasingly uglier. When Beale marries Margo, Susanna tries to keep up by marrying Lincoln (Alexander Skarsgard). Through all of that, it is Maisie though who gets almost lost.

What Maisie knew is a pretty damn wonderful film. It’s sweet and touching and has a perfect cast. More movies should be like it.

Plot:
Gru (Steve Carell), his girls and the minions are living the good (and honest) life. But when a new villain shows up, Gru is recruited by Lucy (Kristen Wiig), agent of the Anti-Villain-League. Together they start staking out the local mall, which not only prompts Gru’s girls to dream about a woman in his life, but also Gru himself.

I thought that I could maybe get more into Despicable Me 2 than I did into Despicable Me. Because it seems to have all the right ingredients for a movie that I would like. But somehow it ends up missing its mark with me. Or, to be more exact, it hits its mark and then it continues on and on until it’s so far past the mark it’s like it didn’t hit in the first place. (This might sound a little harsher than I mean it, but it’s still true.)

Plot:
Calvin (Paul Dano) wrote a critically acclaimed bestseller when he was very young – and has been stuck ever since. He can’t really write anything, he’s afraid that he won’t live up to his own reputation. But then he starts writing about Ruby Sparks (Zoe Kazan) – the perfect girl for him – and literally falls in love with his own creation. That is, until she actually shows up in his kitchen. At first, Calvin believes that he’s finally cracked, but other people can see her, too. And so Calvin doesn’t question it, instead starts enjoying their relationship. But how long can anybody remain perferct?

Ruby Sparks is the perfect take-down of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope. And not only that, it is also a wonderfully charming, touching and funny movie with an extremely excellent cast.

Plot:
Ned (Paul Rudd) is an extremely nice guy. He’s so nice, he’s actually stupid and so it happens that he sells dope to a policeman in uniform who tells him that he just had a rough day. When Ned’s released from prison, he falls back into the lives of his sisters Miranda (Elizabeth Banks) – who tries to get her break as a journalist, Liz (Emily Mortimer) – who just tries to make her marriage with documentary film maker Dylan (Steve Coogan) work and Natalie (Zooey Deschanel) – who tries to get her stand-up career going, lovingly supported by her girlfriend Cindy (Rashida Jones). As Ned attempts to get back on his feet, he waltzes through his sisters’ lives and makes a mess of everything – with the best intentions.

I was not going to see this film because I knew that I would not like it. But my mom, gran and sister took me anyway and it was honestly not as bad as I thought it would be. But that still doesn’t mean that it was any good.